Crafting, Crafting Everywhere!

Saturday my mom came down so that we could have a Craft Day as part of her belated birthday present. This included shopping and eating good food, then going back to my place for some crafty goodness before more food that night (the hubby, my brother and I surprised her with a trip to one of her favorite restaurants, The Melting Pot.) Well.... we got as far as the shopping and eating portion of our day.

We were both looking forward to the day, especially the shopping since my mom knew I'd buy her lots of birthday goodies and it was my first "free day" of the YFC. Well my first purchase happened before I even got in the shower. I was checking email that morning when I saw something from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. Hmm... I figured it was probably a sale flyer. WRONG! It was a heads up that the Rockin' Sock Club was filling up now that it was open to those on the waiting list as well. I called mom with one hand and pulled up the site with the other. I got my order in, confirmed with mom that she wanted in too and took care of her membership while she was reading off her credit card while she was driving down the road to me. WOO HOO! Now to keep an eye on Scout's blog to see when she'll be taking orders for another round of her Indie Swag Club. Yes, I'm greedy. BWAHAHAHA! Can you blame me with such gorgeous yarn out there? =)

Mom arrived and I took her to the Orinoco Cafe for breakfast (a beef empanada and a hot chocolate make a great breakfast by the way) then we started working our way through the LYS trail. Working from farthest to closest, we went to Cloverhill Yarn Shop, The Celtic Knot Yarn Shop, and finally All About Yarn. During the next "free day" excursion I'll take pictures of each shops and tell you a bit about them. We also stopped at 2 machine embroidery/quilt shops and a scrapbook shop but more about that later.

At all the shops we stopped at, yarn and other crafts, there were Super Bowl sales going on. Well, except for Cloverhill. They got the brilliant idea to only have their sale on Super Bowl Sunday. I know they figured lots of women would not be watching the game but I know lots of people who would be, as well as those watching the DIY marathon, having Super Bowl craft parties, etc. Oh the sales they could have had. Mom ooh'd and ahh'd over various yarns but was looking for just the right sock yarn so she didn't get anything here. I picked up the pattern and yarn for my ITE3 partner and the latest issue of Interweave Knits. We would have been out fairly quickly but a woman started chatting with me and proceeded to follow me around the store telling me her tales of knitting and such.

Finally we were off to The Celtic Knot. This fun little store has moved around and moved around trying to find the right home and I think they may have done it this time. Here I picked up the yarn for my PS2 partner with the help of one of the ladies at the store. Trying to pick just the right combination of colors that suited the bag as well as my partner was a bit trying but I think we came up with a lovely selection. Lots of chatting and giggling then we wandered next door...

and into the Ellicott City Sew Vac shop. Though this unassuming shop doesn't look like much at first, it's a sewing/machine embroiderer's haven. Beyond the rows and rows of machines, supplies, and books, you can tell this shop is run by people who love to be creative. Mom went wild over an embellished fleece jacket, I think I might sign up for the Beginning Sewing series. Vicky, the lady who helped us, was charming and funny and seemed to have a great time showing us around the shop. I bought mom a book on fabric wrapped bowl making and then we were out the door yet again! Next stop, Bear's Paw Fabrics. Though more of a quilting shop, here too we found loads of neat classes to consider (the Art Cards class sounds like a blast) and a friendly atmosphere that was most inviting. No purchases this time but we'll be back.

Last stop was at All About Yarn. Here, the store was much more bustling than the others and we ran into other knitters we'd seen earlier who were doing their own LYS trail crawl for Super Bowl sales. I flopped into a chair with pattern books while mom dove into the sock yarn bins. After calling over several times, "What's my spending limit?", she came out with several skeins of gorgeous yarn and handed them over to me. I left with several patterns (The Lucy Bag, Colors Backpack, The Kati Cross-Over Bag, and Butterfly Wings Socks), a second pair of sock needles and DPNS in size3 this time, and of course mom's yarn.

We were hungry by then and need a little nourishment before dinner so we stopped by ZPizza for a slice of pepperoni pizza and a soda, and a chance to look over the spoils of the day. As we were heading back to my apartment, I wanted to stop by a shop that I'd been wondering what it was for sometime (boy do I wish I'd gone in sooner). We went into a fairly nondescript shop called Recollections. WOW! Double WOW! This is not your mom's scrapbooking shop. Yes, you can do the simple stuff here but they also love and encourage the unusual. Creativity and then some. We spent a looooong time in here giggling and playing and the staff were definitely taught to be joyous enablers. LOL! We left with class sheets and promises to come back for classes and crops. Wowzers!

Back at the apartment, we once again went over the haul and killed time until my brother arrived and the hubby had a chance to rest (he'd been putting last touches on his parent's deck he'd built them) before heading off to dinner. Much laughter and a late night was had. Mom crashed on the couch rather than driving home and we had a slow, happy Sunday morning before everyone headed off to the next silly adventure.

My Haul (Minus Mom's Goods)

PS2: yarn to make Jayne's AP Bag

ITE3: Tote Pattern

ITE3: yarn for tote

Belated Christmas Gift from Mom